Four jockeys among 11 banned by the BHA

RACING:THE LARGEST and most complicated investigation into alleged corruption ever conducted by the British Horseracing Authority concluded yesterday when racing's regulator found 11 individuals, including two owners, two current jockeys and two former jockeys, guilty of serious breaches of the sport's rules.

The 11 figures in what the tribunal found to be a conspiracy that included three cases of horses deliberately being “stopped” by their riders were banned from the sport for a combined total of 66 years and six months.

The case, which centred on 10 races at five different courses between January and August 2009, ended with 14-year bans for the racehorse owners Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, who were found to be the organisers of a conspiracy in which horses were laid to lose on betting exchanges. The BHA’s disciplinary panel also imposed 12-year bans from racing on Paul Doe and Greg Fairley, both former jockeys, who were found to have deliberately failed to obtain the best possible placing for their horses.

Doe was found to have stopped Edith’s Boy at Lingfield in March 2009 and Terminate at Bath in July 2009, while Fairley was found to have breached the rules on The Staffy at Wolverhampton in March 2009.

Two current jockeys also received bans. Kirsty Milczarek was banned for two years after the BHA found her guilty of conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice and a breach of the rules on passing privileged information.

Christopher Stewart-Moore, Milczarek’s solicitor, said in a statement last night she intends to appeal. “We think the panel’s reasoning is flawed and we’re going to be appealing to the BHA,” the statement said, “as Kirsty was not involved in any conspiracy of any kind.”

Jimmy Quinn, a veteran of the weighing room, was banned for six months after the tribunal found him guilty of conspiring to commit a fraudulent practice. It is unclear whether he intends to appeal.

Both Milczarek and Quinn had booked rides at race meetings this afternoon but will be unable to take up their engagements as their bans – which stop them entering any racecourse or any training yard – came into effect at midnight last night.

All those found to have breached the rules have seven days in which to lodge an appeal against the panel’s decision.

Paul Scotney, the BHA’s security director, said in a statement after the findings had been announced that “what lies at the heart of this investigation are the actions of two individuals, Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, who, together with their associates, were prepared to corrupt jockeys and to cheat at betting by the misuse of ‘inside information’.”

Three users of betting exchanges whose accounts were used to play the “lay” bets were also banned following the investigation, for between three and five years, while a decision on the penalty for two more, Nick Gold and Peter Gold, has been adjourned.

Two of the 13 individuals who faced charges as a result of the BHA investigation were cleared. Paul Fitzsimons, a former jockey who is now a trainer, and Darren May, who is not licensed by the BHA, were not found to have breached any of the rules.

The findings paint an intricate picture of a conspiracy which has culminated in some of the most significant penalties in the sport’s history. Sines and Crickmore only rarely operated accounts on betting exchanges in their own names but used a number of associates to place bets on their behalf.

They were in frequent contact with many jockeys and Sines’s telephone records showed frequent calls to well-known names including the jockeys Richard Hughes, Frankie Dettori, Kieren Fallon and Ryan Moore and the champion trainer Richard Hannon, with whom he had horses.

The panel reported a threat by Sines to leave racing “in tatters” by revealing details of his links to well-known figures but also pointed out it was only in the case of those jockeys who were part of the investigation that there was “evidence of heavy lay betting” of horses on which they were engaged to ride.

GuardianService